Davos, Switzerland, is one of the highest towns in Europe

Davos is also one of Europe’s most well-known winter sports destinations

Davos emerged as a winter sports resort in 1865. The town went on to pioneer modern skiing, ski lifts, tobogganing, and ice sports. The city hosted early ski races, invented key lift technology, and became home to traditions like the Parsenn Derby and the Spengler Cup.

Davos becomes extremely heavily secured during the WEF

During the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, the city effectively turns into a fortress, guarded by thousands of Swiss army, police, and civil security personnel, with restricted airspace, drone surveillance, snipers, checkpoints, and round-the-clock patrols protecting global leaders.

Attending Davos can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars

Access to Davos’ most exclusive events often comes at a steep price: Annual WEF dues can exceed $50K, premium membership can reach $500K, and attendance adds high costs for travel, lodging, security, and credentials.

See who attended Davos 2025

Each year, Davos draws one of the most exclusive guest lists in the world. In 2025, attendees included 60 heads of state, over 900 CEOs and corporate chairs, and top leaders from global civil society, who gathered in the Swiss Alps.

Davos has been home to many pivotal moments in international diplomacy

Davos provides a forum for unlikely meetings: FW de Klerk met with Nelson Mandela and Mangosuthu Buthelezi during South Africa’s transition from apartheid, North and South Korea held their first-ever ministerial talks, and East and West German leaders discussed reunification.

Thomas Mann set his novel ‘The Magic Mountain’ in Davos

Thomas Mann’s 1924 novel “The Magic Mountain” is set in a Davos sanatorium, using the alpine resort as a symbolic backdrop for exploring time, illness, modernity, and European intellectual life on the eve of World War I.

Albert Einstein taught courses in Davos

This silent video from the 1920s shows footage of Einstein at Davos. The famous scientist spent time there, delivering public lectures on his theory of relativity as part of the town’s university courses.

Listen to the official weekly podcast of Davos

Produced by the World Economic Forum, "Radio Davos" is the forum's weekly podcast, featuring interviews with global leaders, policymakers, executives, and thinkers on issues ranging from climate change and inequality to technology, work, and geopolitics.

Switzerland is widely considered the world capital of cheese

This charming infographic looks at the cheese-related habits of Europe’s top three cheese-producing countries: Italy, France, and Switzerland. Cheeses in France are reported to be the lightest, and Swiss cheeses the heaviest.

Geneva, Switzerland, has some of the highest grocery prices worldwide

Other cities that made the top 20 on the list of the global cities with the highest grocery prices around the world include Boston, Hong Kong, and Toronto, at least as of 2025.

America's best mountain towns

Thrillist compiled a list of the most well-rounded mountain towns in the US, from ski-friendly Park City, Utah, to austere desert hotspot Taos, New Mexico. Peruse this list for you next mountain adventure.

The '7 Summits' is a challenge featuring every continent's highest peak

Some devoted mountaineers aim to tackle the seven highest summits in the world: Mount Everest (Asia), Aconcagua (South America), Mount McKinley (North America), Mount Kilimanjaro (Africa), Mount Elbrus (Europe), Mount Vinson (Antarctica), and either Mount Kosciuszko or the Carstensz Pyramid (Oceania).

The story behind the little Scottish village in the Italian Alps

High in the Italian Alps is Gurro, a small village with a distinct Scottish flair that can be found in its food, clothing, language, and music. At first glance, it may seem like a curiosity, but, as one resident explains in this short video documentary, there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for how an Italian town became known as a Scottish hamlet.

What its like to live in the world’s ‘smartest cities’

What’s it like to live in a smart city? The BBC interviewed residents of five of the world’s smartest, as determined by the International Institute for Management Development, to find out. (See previous resource for those rankings.) Common praises included ease of transportation, sustainability initiatives and proximity to nature.

Ingenuity and advanced engineering have allowed trains to overcome extreme landscapes

The Jungfrau Railway utilizes electric trains powered by hydroelectric energy to ascend the Swiss Alps, while Poland's Elbląg Canal hauls ships along cable-powered tracks driven by waterwheels. Germany's Wuppertal monorail navigates bends as it glides over a river valley, and New Mexico's Holloman High-Speed Test Track can achieve speeds of Mach 8.6 for rocket sleds.

The Valley of Mexico sits over 7,000 feet above sea level

Once dominated by the shallow waters of Lake Texcoco, the high-altitude Valley of Mexico—surrounded by volcanic peaks—was home to the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan. This resource breaks down the region’s unique geography and why it became a cradle of Mesoamerican civilization.

Many countries, like Iceland and Norway, offer pensions to elderly citizens

Iceland, Luxembourg, and Norway offer some of the highest annual pension payouts at over 30,000 euros. The below chart shows how European nations stack up in terms of which offer the highest annual pension payouts.

A German town transforms its entire city hall into a massive Advent calendar

Gengenbach turns its 18th-century town hall into a 24-window Advent calendar attracting up to 220,000 visitors each December. Each night reveals new art, reviving winter tourism in the town.

Decisions at NATO are by consensus and must be unanimous

There are two strategic commands in NATO: one in Europe (Supreme Allied Headquarters Command Europe) and another in Norfolk, Virginia (Allied Command Transformation). The alliance is headed by both a military officer and a civilian leader.

How do maps get their place names in multilingual areas?

In countries with multiple local dialects, cartographers struggle to standardize place names enough to create maps of the region. This process inevitably leads to conflict. Case in point, Switzerland, where in the late 1800s many dialects called the same places by different names, leading one alienated community to demand the return of its local names. Read about this and several other examples of contentious place-naming on maps here.

How landlocked Moscow became Europe's biggest city

It's far enough north to have avoided the nomadic hordes who, for centuries, raided the European plain to its south—but it's just south enough to still farm the land. What's more, Moscow is protected by the huge taiga forests and is guarded by rare east-west rivers in a continent with mostly north-south ones.

The boiling temperature of water decreases with increasing elevation because the molecules need less energy to overcome the lower atmospheric pressure associated with thinner air.

The boiling temperature of water decreases with increasing elevation because the molecules need less energy to overcome the lower atmospheric pressure associated with thinner air.

A dignified later life made possible through dementia villages

Dementia villages are specially designed residential communities tailored for individuals with dementia. These environments offer residents a safe, familiar, and stimulating atmosphere that resembles normal daily life—promoting greater independence, social interaction, and quality of life while discreetly integrating necessary care and support from trained professionals.

The world’s largest waterfall is hidden underwater

The Denmark Strait cataract is an underwater waterfall in the ocean channel between Iceland and Greenland. It’s also the world’s largest waterfall. Standing 11,500 feet tall, the incredible natural landmark is more than three times the height of Angel Falls, the largest waterfall on land. Discover more about the features of this cataract, which, despite its massive size, is totally undetectable above water.

See photos of Meteora, a mountainous site in central Greece, home to 14th-century monasteries perched atop soaring outcroppings.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

An acropolis is a fortified hill, a common center point of Greek city-states

The Acropolis of Athens is the most famous of the Greek structures, the site of the iconic Parthenon standing tall over the city. It has stood for thousands of years and undergone myriad transformations through war and shifts in politics and culture.

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

In 1963, a basement renovation in Turkey revealed a passageway to a hidden, multilevel underground city that once housed as many as 20,000 people

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

An investigation suggests a Scottish island became awash in forever chemicals via seafoam and seaspray—raising questions about what that means for the safety of other coastal areas.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by over 1.5 million Muslims.

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

The first image of a black hole was captured by creating an Earth-sized virtual observatory from a network of eight radio telescopes.

The US dollar is the most widely circulated currency in the world, and is involved in nearly 90% of global transactions

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

Animal phobias are likely the most common type of phobias, followed by an extreme fear of heights.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

Ebola species have historically been named after where they were discovered, stigmatizing residents who live there, including Bundibugyo, in Uganda.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in terms of casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.